3 Strings CBG (cigar box guitar) #4: Fingerboard and box work

Hi again, this weekend was slow because all the fingerboard work, let’s see:

Slots for the fret line position inlays ready, made by hand with a hacksaw going really slow to avoid any mistakes. It may be a couple a little bit bad, but noting too obvious :)

All the maple inlays ready to be glued and trimmed

Inlays closeup

Fitting each inlay

Inlays done!

And now side dots, made with flux core solder, drill each hole, fill it with a small length of solder, melt it with a soldering iron, sand it flush.At this step I also sealed the maple inlays with a drop of crazy/super glue to avoid ebony dust from obscuring the inlays, it did happen a bit in some of the inlays… “It adds character” I’ll say

12 fret marker made with 3/8” aluminum tube, file some teeth in a piece of the same tube to have a saw for this hole, I went with 1/8” depth and cut the tube inlay a tiny bit thicker, later sanded it flush.

Then I glued a couple of wood pieces (quinilla wood, really dense and hard) to attach the neck later

Test fitting the neck attached to the box, all good

Then added a small detail to the neck heel and tail(tzalam/caribbean walnut wood)

I’m playing with the idea of adding a sound hole and cover it with this sink cover I found in HD, what do you guys think?

Next steps: gluing the fingerboard to the neck and decide which finish I’ll use, see you next week!

Hi Mauricio, yes that’s a neat trick I learned from a friend doing cooper inlays in some lathe turned vases.At first I had some doubts as the aluminum I used is on the soft side, but it did the groove surprisingly well and went into the ebony really easy.

And… I didn’t thought about the graphics in the box until now, nice catch! I think I’ll save the idea for the next build ;)